I have a friend who always downloads the smallest (by file size) copy of any video he can find. He has a 75" 4k TV, 5.1 surround speakers, the whole setup but he downloads 720p in stereo almost exclusively. He says he just doesn't care about the video or audio quality. It blows my mind, but some people are just weird.

Edit: Also, Paul is just a funny movie, if you're into goofy movie references.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Easier to find a 75" in 4k than 720p resolution I guess?
But I can't rationalize the sound aspect.

[–] 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I have just plain stereo and wouldn't change it for the world. Have had all sorts of setups throught the years... it's so much easier when I don't have to worry about speaker mapping or what the player/browser would do with a plain stereo signal on a 5.1 or a 7.1 setup. Sometimes, everything's kosher, most of the time it's a mess.

Like it or not, stereo has been the default way to record audio for the last 80, 90 year, and it has proven that it's simple, yet effective at making the music "come alive" in the listener's mind. Sure, surround does it better, but there is too much maintenance into it, plus mastering albums in surround is a real PITA, especially electronic music (not real instruments, so how are you gonna map that effect/sound 🤷). Most TV stations also air plain stereo. Cameras, phones - plain stereo. Most series - also, plain stereo. Movies are basically the "odd ball out" because they're a combined multimedia experience (video and audio) and they're usually just shots of real world stuff happening in front of a screen, so it's not that difficult to surround map the sound on them (i.e. the video tells the story of how the auido should ”move").

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

stereo has been the default way to record audio for the last 80, 90 year

No it hasn’t been. 70yrs would be a stretch. Even in the 60s you’d still have Mono albums released regularly, as well as alongside Stereo releases. Stereo television broadcasts weren’t introduced until 1984 in the United States. For reference, the first Dolby Surround cinema release was Apocalypse Now in 1979.

[–] 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yeah, you're right, I messed up counting backwards 😂.

Still, stereo is good enough for me, I just can't be bothered with complicated setups any more 🤷.

[–] Coasting0942@reddthat.com 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Wait till you find out about the people who play shooters at literally the lowest quality possible AND 30fps

Edit: from my friend who does this, he likes the idea of using as little power as possible

[–] RedEyeFlightControl@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In some cases it renders less in the game, making the game easier, too.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 points 10 months ago

Unless it's not rendering the baddies.

[–] wildcardology@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

A lot of pros play shooters at low just to get more fps.

[–] Coasting0942@reddthat.com 1 points 10 months ago

I’m talking about what the YouTuber LowSpecGamer used to do. Running fallout 4 on a fire stick type stuff.

[–] PoolloverNathan@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago

I roll a d4 for my FPS at the lowest possible quality. I literally can't go higher.

[–] Kolrami@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If they're watching on a phone, 720 might be fine. My preferred resolution depends a lot on what device I'm watching on and its screen size.

[–] 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I usually watch the movie on my PC and my setup is plain stereo with a non-FullHD monitor, so... not much point in downloading 1080p 🤷.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

😯non full HD in 2023? How do you handle such low res?

[–] 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Meeh, doesn't really bother me 🤷. I usually just use the default settings in whatever DE in Linux (I usually use xfce, but I've switched when I felt like it, if I'm getting bored and wanna try something new 😂), or change a few font sizes here and there and all is good 🤷. Regarding Windows (I dual boot), I don't really care that much to be honest, I rarely use it the past few years. I only use it for work and only when I have to do some things from home or when I need to use some obscure piece of software that just doesn't work in Wine.

So.. no, I don't really see a reason to buy a bigger monitor. Actually, I haven't bought a monitor for ages, like probably 20 years 😂, all of the ones I currently use are salvaged from one person or another - they wanna trade up, they give me their old monitor 😂. I don't complain, they're still usable for me 🤷.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I appreciate you for preventing eWaste by reusing 🤩 that is awesome! I myself use the old macbookpro and iMacs from my father running Linux :D it’s great to live in a time where one can get such powerful computing devices for free 😇 But for watching movies and series, I really appreciate higher resolution and don’t feel satisfied if it is less than 1080 (more if we talking 25" plus)

[–] 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

To be honest, I just love reusing old stuff and giving it new meaning ☺️. And fixing stuff too. Sure, they will eventually be worthless, but I try and extend their life as much as possible ☺️.

Regarding the movies thing, each to his own 🤷 😉. I don't judge. Hell, even I sonetimes download 1080p and watch that on my TV, but it's mostly a special case scenario, like some good movie I've wanted to watch for a long time, but never got around to it, or something like.

[–] Forester@yiffit.net 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

So if you have newer nvidia based card you can upscale to 4K based off 7 20p

The result is closer to 1440 p

[–] conflictoffbeat@lemm.ee 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But, why not just download the 1080p version? Instead of doing the whole upscaling thing?

[–] Forester@yiffit.net 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Because you can download faster and then upscale instantaneously

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 10 months ago

You'd need to have a wire made of bamboo to justify the 2gb more.
And with the added resolution you can even better scale it up.

[–] 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

Really? That thing works? Like no pixelization?

[–] IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee 0 points 10 months ago

What, what? How and can I do it over Plex? Got a link, please?